Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, 20, had been held about 24 hours after he was arrested Wednesday by Florida authorities under a state immigration law a judge temporarily blocked.
A U.S. citizen was arrested in Florida for allegedly being in the country illegally and held for pickup by immigration authorities even after his mother showed a judge her son’s birth certificate and the judge dismissed charges. The man was released after his case received widespread coverage. Juan Carlos Lopez Gomez, 20, was in a car that was stopped just past the Georgia border by the Florida Highway Patrol on Wednesday, said Thomas Kennedy, a spokesperson at the Florida Immigrant Coalition. Gomez and others in the car were arrested under a new Florida law that's on hold that makes it a crime for people who are in the country illegally to enter the state.
An American citizen was sitting in a Florida jail at the orders of federal immigration authorities despite a judge finding his birth certificate to be legitimate.
